Driving I-20 at 2 am

I am exhausted. Period. I remember being tired with Braden, but this is an all new tired. It is not from just lack of sleep at night, but Parker is also not on a nap schedule during the day. I don't really see myself as the type of drill sergeant parent who lives by her kid's schedule. However, from my experience with Braden schedules create routine and routine creates a feeling of stability and a feeling of stability creates a happy baby and an even happier mommy!

Since I am still nursing Parker I hadn't really pushed a nap schedule and at night I just feed him whenever he gets restless since he is sleeping in a co sleeper by our bed. And it was working...until the past few weeks when he stopped sleeping 4-5 hours at a stretch and began getting up every 2-3 hours and waking up and not falling back to sleep. Plus he won't nap in his co sleeper or crib during the day so unless he falls asleep in his car seat and sleeps when I get home I have to carry him around and I can't get anything accomplished.

This week has been the worst with sleep. Tuesday night I fed Parker at 1:15 and I had to get up and change him since he wet through his diaper. I got him back down at 1:45 and Braden woke up throwing up at 2 so Brad and I didn't get into bed until 5:30 the next morning. Wednesday night Parker slept in the co sleeper until 1:30 then started crying every time I tried to lay him back down so I ended up putting him in bed with me which meant I got NO sleep. This takes us to Thursday night. Parker wakes up at 1 I nurse him hoping he falls back asleep- he does not. Brad rocks him and gets him to sleep- until he lays him down. This goes on until 2 am and I decide I will put him the car and drive him around to try to get him in a deep sleep (I am not a fan of this idea- we did it with Braden when he was a week old and have not again, however I didn't see a lot of other options at 2am). That takes me to driving up and down I 20 at 2am trying to get him asleep, which finally happened after 30 minutes until I got home and he woke up!

With that said driving I 20 at 2 am has gotten me to the place where my mind is made up that it is time for Parker to start sleeping through the WHOLE night in his OWN crib in his OWN room. The only reason this happened with Braden was because Brad said it was time to get him out of our bed when he was 5 months old. So with Braden I did a lot of research on different sleep strategies and we decided on the Ferber method...let them cry 5 minutes, then soothe, but don't pick up, cry 10 mins. soothe but don't pick up and so on. Well, I had the hardest time listening to Braden cry and if it weren't for Brad I would have gone into get him. But he cried through the first 5 minutes, then I soothed him and he stopped crying on the 9th minute of the next cycle and has been sleeping through the night ever since.

So my mind is made up. We WILL try it starting Wed. night (I don't have to go back to work Thursday) and I WILL be strong! But here are my hurdles.

• I am still nursing Parker, but I think that he should be able to last through the night without eating (I think it is more for comfort during the night at this point anyway)



• I am still swaddling him at night, which I won't do for safety reasons when he is in his own crib in his own room for safety reasons since he can now roll over.

So any and all mothers with any advice or ideas, I am interested in listening.!!!!

Braden's Last Day of School

Braden had his last day of school last Thursday. This year Braden was really excited about going to school each day and playing with his friends. He loved show and tell, centers, and computer, sometimes liked art and was not a fan of music and movement! He really loved his teachers Ms. Glenda and Ms. Julie! I am hoping thar next year will be exciting for Braden as well.

Parker 4 Months

This is a little late, but 2 weeks ago Parker had his 4 month check up complete with the ever dreaded immunizations. Parker is now 24.5 inches long and 13 lbs 14 oz. Parker sis really great and was cooing and giggling until the shots! This was my worst experience with immunizations. We expected Park to be cranky and sleepy, instead he was lethargic for 24 hours- staring off into space if he wasn't sleeping. We ended up taking him to the ER and after talking to Dr. Miller we are going to spread all of his immunizations out to see if we can figure out if it was one immunization in particular or a combination of them all. Please pray that we do not see a side effect like this again and that there will not be any long term effects that occur from any of his immunizations.

Here are all of the new things that Parker has been up to:

• He is rolling over from his belly to his back!



• He has started eating rice cereal and some veggies (sweet peas, squash and sweet potato)



• He giggles and coos all the time



• He loves watching Braden



• Parker had his first taste of bubble gum antibiotics thanks to a nasty double ear infection



• We are still trying to get a nap schedule figured out (any tips/ideas?)



• His favorite toy is his exersaucer